| Objective To present a meta-analysis of high-quality published reports comparing conventional laparoscopic gastric cancer resection (LR) and robotic gastric cancer resection (RR).Methods Studies that compared LR and RR and were published from 2002 to 2016 were identified. All eligible trials were evaluated based on the modified Methodological Indices for Nonrandomized Studies (MINORS). The mean differences (MD) and odds ratios (OR) were used to compare the operative time, blood loss, mortality, complications, harvested lymph nodes, hospital stay, resection margin.Results Twelve studies enrolled ranging from 27 to 1 297 patients were identifiedand 5 008 patients (3 813 LR, 1 565 RR) were included.There was no significant difference between the two groups(OR=1.08,95%CI:0.88～1.32,P>0.05) in the incidence of complications. Although the operation time of the RR group was obviously longer than that of the conventional surgery group (MD=-41.03,95%CI:-53.75～-28.31,P<0.05), RR was associated with less blood loss(MD=25.22,95%CI:8.28～42.15,P<0.05) and more harvested lymph nodes(MD=-2.20,95%CI:-3.26～-1.15,P<0.05). However, no significant differences between the LR and RR groups were observed in terms of the mortality, hospital stay,resection margin.Conclusion RR can be performed safely compared with conventional surgery.The traditional laparoscopic surgery has obvious advantages in operation time and the robotic gastric cancer surgery has a better effect in the number of blood loss and the harvested lymph nodes. |
